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Chinese Labourers Repairing Train Track

Black and white photograph of a railway track in the foreground along which groups of men, many of which are Chinese, are working. In the background is the wreckage of numerous wooden railway coal cars ‘concertina’d’ together in a jumbled pile.

Source: Ladysmith Archives

Date: September 1900

Four men were killed when two coal trains collided on the E&N railway just north of Ladysmith in September 1900. This accident prompted building of a separate railway track for trains carrying coal from the mines at Extension to the wharves at Ladysmith. The photograph shows, amongst others, a gang of Chinese labourers fixing the track after the collision.